Repairing Breech Face on Hammerli 208S
This is a guest post by Derrick Martin. If you have a similar problem with your Hammerli, feel free to contact Derrick at ask_derrick@aol.com. BREECH FACE CUTTER The Counterbore had a large radius around the Pilot Hole. I had to reface counterbore back to remove radius and then regrind cutting reliefs with die grinder, back […]
All Quiet on the Beretta Front Sight
A club member asked me to work on her Beretta. Among other things, I’ve installed an adjustable Bomar-style rear sight, which required a much taller front sight than the original factory one. A quick search for readily available product revealed nothing, so I decided to make one. I got a small piece of mild steel […]
Rebarreling my Pardini
This was an interesting experiment. I’ve been trying to make my Pardini .32ACP accurate at 50 yards for quite some time, but without any luck. Finally I’ve decided to make a custom barrel for it and see if the results will improve. The 5″ length of a rifle .308 blank was a perfect candidate. I […]
Marvel Cut
A fellow club member asked me to tune up his gun. It was not cycling properly and hanging up on disconnector every now and then, and after a brief inspection we decided that a Marvel disconnector cut will help. For those of you who have never heard this term before, it’s the angle cut on […]
Rhapsody in Stainless Steel
This build was a mix of carbon steel frame and stainless steel slide. We discussed some finish options, including IonBond, cold blue, etc. and finally chose to do Cerakote, not because it’s easy…oh wait, actually because it’s easy…well, sort of. I had to do a lot of preparations. Aside from the Cerakote starter kit, I […]
Stone Soup – Part 2
While waiting for the rest of the parts to arrive, I stippled the front strap and cut the grip safety tangs to .250 radius using my rotary table. I then hand fitted the grip safety using gauge pins and sharpie to mark and file down the high spots. I blasted the frame and the slide […]
Stone Soup – Part 1
A club member brought me a no-name GI-style 1911 made in Philippines and asked to rebuild it as a ball gun suitable for the CMP service pistol EIC matches. This project reminded me of the old European folk tale Stone Soup. Pretty much every single part of the gun needs to be replaced. Even the […]
Ruger Mark COVID-19
A free weekend, a length of an aluminum tube, and coronavirus lockdown…
– 1911 + 745 = ❤️?
I have a love/hate relationship with 1911. I really admire the way the gun is designed, it is truly the JMB’s masterpiece work. I love working on 1911, enjoy building or accurizing them. And the only one thing I cannot do well is to shoot them. I simply cannot control the trigger, I take my […]
Colt 1903 Part III
I guess I can call this one done. I found a new barrel on eBay (still ~$120, oy!), a proper disconnector, a period correct magazine and a replica grips. Reassembling this little pistol was not easy at all, nothing like 1911, but I figured it out. Haven’t fired it yet, but everything seems to function […]